donderdag, oktober 31, 2013

"Giuseppe Penone and I are peering into a sculpture in his spacious studio close to the Dora, a river in Turin. It is an early experiment for the Bloomberg commission, filled with gold and resin. "It is like a river of a blood," he says.
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Spread over a number of floors in an old industrial building, Penone's studio has room for the display of many of his sculptures. Walking in to the "dirty area" – full of sawdust and power tools – I am confronted with works that are familiar, some versions of which have been around since the 1960s.

Maurizio, Penone's sole assistant, is working on one of the series in which a large tree is carved into to expose the inner "original" tree, the base left to show that it is real. The tree epitomises what is unique about Penone's work: in some ways his themes are unashamedly old fashioned, but the tension of the man-made and the natural that he introduces by his use of materials means it feels completely contemporary. "I hope that my work's universality will give it a longer shelf life than many contemporary works. Work that was done with irony has a life that is very short."

Going upstairs to a large balcony with work carefully arranged is like moving through a mini retrospective. Penone says that he needs to spend time with his work: "Sometimes the work tells me nothing for a long time, and then one day it tells me something." (bron: The Independent)

Porthmeor Studios, just a stones throw from the Tate St Ives is in desparate need of renovation, 2007. (bron en foto: Peter Bennet)

"In 1801 the people of St Ives built a wall to protect their town from being engulfed by sand. On Porthmeor beach this wall enabled the fishermen to create cellars and net lofts to process their large catches of pilchards and store their boats and nets. From the 1880s famous artists from around the world, attracted by the extraordinary light, worked alongside the fishermen using the lofts as studios.

Today this unique relationship still exists between artists and fishermen. For more than 200 years this building has been battered by the harsh Atlantic weather and is now in urgent need of saving.
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The fishermen’s cellars were originally constructed for the pilchard fishing industry in 1814 and are now the last remaining work spaces of their kind still being used for by fishermen. You can still see the huge tanks where the pilchards were pickled in brine. Today 12 boats work out of Porthmeor and the fishermen use the cellars for repairing and setting their nets and storage of lobster pots.

Above the fishermen’s cellars were the artists studios with a list of former tenants which reads like a who’s who of 20th Century British painting, Julius Olsson, Borlase Smart, Francis Bacon, Ben Nicholson, Patrick Heron and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham.
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Porthmeor Studios are also home to the St Ives School of Painting. Started in 1938 by Leonard Fuller, the school plays a vital role in the cultural and economic life of St Ives, attracting students from around the world.
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Prolonged exposure to the harsh marine environment had taken its toll on the building, and by 2005 it was extremely fragile and in urgent need of major repairs. The slate roof in particular was causing great concern and more holes appear with every gale, and it was placed on the English Heritage ‘Building at Risk’ register.
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Funding from the Arts Lottery Programme enabled award winning architects, Long & Kentish, to design a scheme to repair and renovate the building sympathetically without significantly altering its unique character.
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Local contractors Symons Construction were appointed to carry out the renovations, and construction work started in October 2010 and was completed in October 2012. The building now offers upgraded and high quality workspace for artists, fishermen and the St Ives School of Painting."